N.J. psychiatrist helps young man find expression through art

Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerDiane Kaufman, a psychiatrist at UMDNJ, was able to help patient Cody Smith get into an arts program. She also helped him get a new computer.
Speaking isn’t easy for Cody Smith. His words surf the labored waves of his breathing, audible when he exhales, receding to near silence when he breathes in. That’s why the young man, a quadriplegic since he was struck by a car 15 years ago, has turned to art to find expression.

"I write a journal,’’ he says. "Sometimes, I write poems. Sometimes, I paint.’’

To do that, the teenager needs help, and he has received it. From expected sources — like his father Michael, who uprooted himself to move from Texas to New Jersey in search of better medical care, rehabilitation and schooling for his son.

He also has received help from strangers who worked together to pull Cody back from the depths of a destructive if understandable depression. They were led by a pediatric psychiatrist who believed artistic expression could help her patient.

"Cody has talents,’’ says Diane Kaufman, who also is a clinical faculty member at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. "He is an artist.’’

Kaufman has seen the young man when he has been in the grip of mental illness, hearing voices telling him to destroy himself. Because of his limited mobility, Cody can’t do much to act on those urges, but he did gnaw away at the tips of the fingers of one hand.

"He clearly needed a lot of help,’’ says Kaufman.

She says she did what she could as his psychiatrist but, when she learned one of his worst episodes was related to the crash of his computer, a machine he used to write a journal, Kaufman turned to her other passion, art.

"Cody needed a computer and needed an outlet for his art,’’ says Kaufman, who has spent years joining her love of the arts to her psychiatric practice. She has produced shows that allowed her young patients to show their work and she lectures new doctors on the healing powers of art.

The Smith family could not afford to buy a new computer. Kaufman says she believes it unethical for her to buy one for a patient, so she began to investigate how she could help. Through a number of chance occurrences, she was able to enlist the help of the Paul Jackson Fund in Westfield.

The fund paid, not just for a new laptop, but also for lessons in writing and painting at the Wellness Arts and Enrichment (WAE) Center in West Orange. It’s a program in the arts designed for people with disabilities.

"Everything began to come together for Cody,’’ says Kaufman. "So many people wanted to help.’’

Much of what Cody writes on his laptop computer is known only to him. Like all teenagers — he turns 20 next week — Cody defends his privacy, not easy to do because he is so dependent on others.

"He won’t show it to me,’’ says his father, but Michael Smith says the help Kaufman and others provided Cody has made his son happier.

One of his paintings depicts demons that have plagued his mind since his accident so many years ago. But he mixes them with religious symbols — symbols of hope.

"I’m happy when I can paint and write,’’ says Cody.

The new laptop also has allowed him to do research on famous writers — he is doing a project on Shakespeare — and to build a community of his own through social networking sites like Facebook.

"He has come back from a brink,’’ says Kaufman.

Helping Cody helped her, the psychiatrist says.

"My sense of spirituality was confirmed,’’ she says. "When so many people came together to help this young man, when so many coincidences occurred that led others to him, I really felt there was some larger design going on.’’